Black Sheep
by compulsiveprocrastinator
Summary: "Fine. Who are you, and why are you here?" The girl turned to face Frank, looked him directly in the eyes, and spoke. "You can call me Kate, and I'm here because I'm your granddaughter." Rating will go up.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello :) this is my first Blue Bloods fic, so if anything is OOC I apologise. I hope you enjoy the story, this is the first chapter of a multi-chap fic. Reviews/comments/constructive criticism are greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Bloods, only my OC Kate.**

Kate picked at the food on her plate, more interested in observing the other occupants of the table than her roast dinner. She reclined in such a casual manner, twisted sideways with one heel of her leather boots pulled up onto the edge of the dining chair, that it bordered on being disrespectful. No one at the table commented though.

"So how's the case going, Danny?" Frank asked too casually, trying valiantly to act normal, the slight tension in his mouth would have given him away though, even without the uncomfortable silence at the table. Danny glanced up from his plate and then quickly down again, it was the wrong question to have asked.

"Not too good, our main suspect has an alibi. We know it's bogus but with 12 people swearing he was at a party at the time of the murder and no evidence tying him to it we got nothing."

"If there's no evidence how do you know he did it?" Jack asked tentatively, knowing how his father could get when he was on a tough case. Danny stabbed a piece of broccoli much harder than necessary before replying.

"Because the dead guy was going to testify against my suspect when he is brought to trial. The department's been building a case against him for seven months. It's not a coincidence our witness was killed now. If this guy didn't do it he ordered it, but I've got nothing on him."

"And without that testimony our case is nothing but circumstantial." Erin interjected tersely.

"If he was that important why didn't you protect him?" Everyone looked up at Kate, she had barely said a word to them until now, but her voice when she did speak was strong and clear. It was becoming clear her reserve had nothing to do with shyness. Erin turned to answer her but the gaze she met was unnervingly direct. Taking a moment to compose herself, she replied in what she hoped was a measured tone.

"We wanted to, but the victim refused our help-"

"Arrogant." It was a statement, not a question, and once Kate was finished she abruptly looked away, effectively dismissing the older woman. Ruffled by the bluntness of the much younger woman Erin didn't reply and the table lapsed into awkward silence once more. Nicky caught the eye of the boys across the table.

"Come on guys, let's help clear." The other kids all stood and started picking up dishes. Henry and Linda followed them and Frank, Danny, Erin, Jamie and Kate were left at the table. Frank effected an air of relaxation and tried to casually suggest they all go and relax in the sitting room. A hint of a smirk tugged at the corner of Kate's lip as she took in how unsure they all were before pinning a sarcastic smile on her face.

"Okidoke gramps." She stood and sauntered over to the couch, her developing hips swayed as she walked. It was clear to Frank she was hyper aware of the effect of her every movement, of every expression, of her every word. When not putting on a specific act though her default mode was serious, her mouth grim and eyes dark. It was incongruous with her young, pretty features and adolescent figure. Her hair was long and blonde, and her eyes piercingly blue. Kate settled herself at one end of the couch and the others awkwardly followed her lead.

xxxxxxxxxx

In the kitchen no one really spoke apart from about the cleaning up, until Nicky eventually broke the stifling atmosphere.

"So are you gonna explain to us what is going on with Kate?" The adults looked awkwardly at each other for a moment.

"Well, it's like we said-" Linda started.

"You said she was Uncle Joe's daughter, but you haven't explained how that's possible, or where she's been, or what's going to happen now."

"And that we have to be patient and get to know her." Sean interjected quietly.

"How can we get to know her? We barely even see her. Where does she go all the time? The boys already told me she hasn't stayed at your house, and she hasn't stayed here either, has she? What does she do? Where does she go? Where did she come from?" They had all abandoned the cleaning by now.

"We don't know kids," Henry said simply, "but she's family and we'll figure it out. Let's just be glad we have her."

"We are glad, but it doesn't mean we don't have questions. How do we know she's part of the family? And how did Uncle Danny and Grandpa find her?"

"Well, the truth is we didn't find her, she found us." Henry said quietly. The three kids looked shocked, the adults had agreed not to say anything until they had a better idea of what was going on, but it had been two weeks and they were no closer to answers, it wasn't fair to keep them in the dark any longer. "We know she's part of the family because your Grandpa had a DNA test done."

"Now that's enough for now, let's get these chores done and then we can go do something fun, eh?" At Linda's command they got back to work, but no one really felt like having fun.

xxxxxxxxxx

"So we wanted to talk to you Kate." Danny said, strain evident in his voice despite his efforts to conceal it.

"Of course you did." She sounded bored, and her pose slumped on the sofa made it look like she was just an ordinary, brusque teenager, but a sharpness in her eyes gave her away to Frank. He showed no sign of having noticed this, but filed it away for future reference as he sat forward with his hands clasped in front of him. His eyes were bright, and he was frowning slightly.

"Kate, you came to us a little over two weeks ago. As you know what you had to say was a surprise to us all, a wonderful surprise of course, but we had no idea-"

"I existed?" Kate interrupted Frank in a clipped tone. "Don't worry yourself Gramps, you couldn't have known. Where are you going with this?"

"Well, Kate, what I'm getting to is we know nothing about you. We want to get to know you but you're not making it very easy for us." Erin chose this moment to jump in.

"We don't know where you sleep at night, where you go to school, or even if you do go to school." Erin's voice took on a slightly warning tone despite herself.

"Speaking of school, exactly how old are you, kid?" Danny tried to make the question casual, but Kate just raised her eyebrows and smirked a little. After a moment with no answers Jamie continued in his patient, reasonable voice, hoping it would get through to her.

"Look, if you're not ready to tell us about yourself yet we get it, but what we really wanted to ask you is, would you consider moving in with one of us?" The words tumbled out of his mouth. "We have no way to reach you, we don't know if you're safe, who you're with." Kate chuckled at that despite herself, looking away from them for a moment before turning to hold Jamie's gaze. "We can guess that wherever you've been up until now hasn't been good, but we want to change that. Danny and Linda have a spare room, so do Nicky and Erin, so you could live with your cousins. Nicky's around your age, the two of you could really get on well, and the boys are great kids. Or you could live here with Grandpa and Pop, it's up to you."

"We want you to be a part of this family." Frank said, emotion tightening his voice. Kate looked around at them for a moment, taking them in, before standing abruptly.

"Thanks, but sorry gang, I do my own thing, see you around." She walked over to the foyer and started putting her coat on, a khaki top coat, over her red and blue lumber jack shirt and jeans. Frank followed her, leaving the others to fidget in the lounge.

"Kate, don't write the idea off just yet, think it over, the offer doesn't have an expiration date."

"Whatever, Commish. Thanks for dinner." She pulled on her tan leather backpack and was gone out the front door. Danny, who had started to approach from the lounge, went to follow her, but Frank stopped him.

"Dad, we can't just let her -"

"It will do no good to follow her, she isn't going to do anything she doesn't want to."

"We at least have to find out where she's going!"

"We can't, I know, I've tried!" Frank said irritably before looking away. "After she showed up that first time I've tried to have her followed a couple of times. She always knows and loses them. She just disappears!"

"That's impossible," Jamie said from behind Danny, he and Erin had joined them by now.

"And yet she does it. If it weren't for the boot marks on my couch and the three DNA tests I had run on her I could hardly have believed this girl is real . . . Look, I think the more we try and pull her in, the more she'll keep her distance. We're just going to have to wait for her to come to us."

"If she ever does." Erin said grimly.

xxxxxxxxxx

Monday morning was as just as unpleasant as Danny had been expecting. The station was too busy, too loud, and he was exhausted. He had snatched a couple of hours sleep after having staked his suspect out for most of the night and the only thing to show for his trouble was an over familiarity with the guy's smoking habits. He'd done nothing all night apart from have one on the hour, every hour, outside the doors to his luxury apartment building. Either the guy didn't like the smell of smoke in his penthouse or he knew they would be watching and was taunting them. Didn't take a genius to work out which. His name was Marcus Brooks, a former trust fund baby, who was used to getting his own way, regardless of what it took to get it. The guy had made millions in illegal stock trading, and now that he was actually going to be punished for the first time in his life he thought he could just kill a guy and it would all go away. Not with Danny on his ass though. He had to come up with something to nail the SOB on, but with his witness dead, a rival trader who'd rolled over on Brooks in order to save himself from charges, he had nothing to go on. He rubbed his eyes and sipped at the awful coffee in a paper cup at his elbow.

"Morning sunshine" Jackie quipped as she joined him at their desks.

"Ha ha, how'd it go with the CCTV search at the time of our murder?"

"Got some footage of a big guy in a baseball cap and dark jacket walking down the street outside the alley the vic was found in around the TOD but nothing to ID the guy or even say he was involved."

"Great, so we got nothing."

"Pretty much. Oh, this came for you this morning." Jackie handed him an envelope, Danny opened it without much interest, pissed at the progress on his case. As he began to read his face rapidly changed into an expression that could only be described as the physical equivalent of 'what the hell'.

"Danny? What is it?" He showed her the letter wordlessly. It read:

_Search the area around the scene of the murder of Darren Forrest again. Pay special attention to searching the drains 6 blocks east. You will find the murder weapon in a white plastic bag. Rush through forensic tests on it, the man it will lead you to is leaving the country tomorrow. I am sure you will find what he has to say useful in the case against Marcus Brooks._

Danny and Jackie stared at each other in disbelief.

"Do you think it's a joke?" Danny didn't answer for a moment.

"No, the details are too specific. But who the hell could know this stuff?"

"Should we go to the sarge?" Danny thought carefully before replying.

"No, if we do find something this could call the evidence into question, we could be accused of faking the evidence, and this letter, to create a lead. Let's just order another search by the uniforms, we're at a dead end anyway. We've decided we'd give widening the search parameters a shot. Nothing unusual about that. If we find something, well, it's just good luck."

"Ok, I can run with that."

"You've got a friend in forensics, right? See if you can get her to run this and the envelope, try and find something to identify our mystery informant. Keep it between us though."

"Will do." Jackie walked off, leaving Danny at his desk looking troubled.

xxxxxxxxxx

Miles Williamson hadn't been expecting them, if the sight of him wrapped in his shower curtain was anything to go by. His bags were packed and by the door, in half an hour he would have been on his way to the airport to catch his early morning flight. Instead he found himself trying to put his pants on whilst cuffed, Jackie waiting outside trying not to laugh whilst Danny watched him struggle. Eventually he ended up cuffed to the interrogation room table, trying to look intimidating in spite of the debacle the officers had just witnessed.

"You gonna tell me why I'm here or what, man?"

"Tell you what, why don't you think real hard and tell us yourself, I'm sure it'll come to you."

"I got no idea what you're talking about."

""No? Well let me refresh your memory then, couple of nights ago there was an alley, this guy walked past and you pulled him in and shot him four times in the chest, is it starting to come back to you now, scumbag?" Miles looked away, suddenly very nervous.

"I had nothing to do with that."

"No? Then why don't you explain to us how we found the gun that killed him dumped a few blocks away with your finger prints on it? Huh?" Reagan was looming over the perp, perched on the table to the side of him, Jackie decided it was time for good cop.

"Look Miles, with the convictions you've already got, and the evidence we have against you, no jury on earth is gonna let you walk. Give yourself a chance, give us the guy who paid you for the hit. We'll talk to the DA, see what we can get done for you." Miles put his head in his hands, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Alright, alright, get one off your lawyers down here. And I want my lawyer."

xxxxxxxxxx

"So I heard you got your guy." Frank and Danny were having a drink in the wing-backs at his Dad's house.

"Yeah, yeah we got lucky." Frank turned to his son, eyebrows raised. If he thought there was something wrong before, he was sure of it now.

"Alright, what's going on son?"

"Whaddya mean, Dad? Nothing's going on."

"Danny, in all the time you have been on the job I have never once heard you write a collar off to luck. You don't rely on luck for anything. So tell me, what's going on?"

"Aw jeez Dad." Danny sat forward, mulling it all over. "Yesterday morning we had nothing. No witnesses, no history on the bullets from the vic, no surveillance video. Nothing. And then just as I'm thinking that this case is going cold faster than a deep freeze I get a letter handed to me at my desk."

"And?" Instead of replying Danny pulled it out of his jacket pocket and handed it to his father. After giving him a few moments to read it Danny continued. "No prints apart from me, Jackie, and the mail clerk. No DNA, no trace evidence. Typed and printed using generic brand equipment available all over the country. It wasn't posted, apparently it just somehow ended up in with the mail when it came to being sorted. I asked the shooter if he'd told anyone about what he'd done with the gun, he looked at me like I was crazy."

"So you got nothing." Danny sat back in his chair, hand on his forehead. "You didn't report it?" Danny shook his head silently. "Why not?"

""I didn't know if it would affect whether the evidence would be admissible or not. Thought it would look like we'd faked it, planted the evidence. We couldn't have done, no one on this case would frame some random guy just to get a collar. But would a judge believe us? Anonymous tips don't exactly hold up well in court. So I didn't act on it directly, I just ordered a second search and made sure they were extra thorough in certain areas. Everything was done to procedure, it'll all stand up in court, and the guy confessed to it, gave us evidence of cash payments between him and Brooks."

"Still, you withheld evidence in a murder inquiry from your senior officers."

"Weak evidence, it just gave us a hint, that's all, we built the case ourselves. Come on Dad, can you honestly say you would have done it any different?" Frank didn't answer but the cock of his head to the side and slight eyebrow raise said everything there needed to be said. "What I'm worried about is someone somehow had access to not only our case, but knew things about it even we didn't know."

""And they were careful to give you just enough information to send you down the right path."

"So everything would be admissible, right. If they care about getting a conviction do you think it could be someone from the DA's office? Trying to push the case forward?"

"Who not only knew where the perp dumped the weapon, but who he was and his travel plans? I can't see it, they're lawyers, not investigators."

"Well it can't be on our end, there's only me, Jackie and Gormley who know anything about the case."

"So then, who is it?" Both men pondered the question silently. After a while, Danny necked the rest of his drink.

"I dunno, maybe I got a guardian angel, eh? I gotta get home, if this mysterious guardian reappears we can deal with it then. Night Pop."

"Night, son." Frank stayed sat up long after Danny left, a frown on his lips.

xxxxxxxxxx

Days passed without anything out of the ordinary occurring in the Reagan family, they worked, they argued, they made up. Kate was nowhere to be found. Finally, on Saturday morning Frank came down early, still in his dressing gown, to find the kitchen table already occupied. Kate was reading the newspaper, a glass of orange juice in front of her that had barely been touched.

"Morning Frank." Barely missing a beat, Frank headed to the coffee pot.

"Frank? What happened to gramps? Or Commish? Thanks for making coffee."

"I guess I'm not feeling facetious today."

"Oh? And what are you feeling today?" He headed to the fridge as he spoke, and started pulling breakfast items out.

"That it's amazing the difference a four-piece suit makes to a man. You're almost intimidating behind that desk." Frank laughed, his mind flashing back to the first time they met.

_Frank set his things down, dismissing Baker once she was done with her morning report. He had just sat down at his desk when he jumped at the click of the door to his right. No one was supposed to be in the meeting room. The door swung open, Frank was reaching for his weapon when in walked . . . A girl. A teenage girl, in a soft grey sweater and a beanie hat. Frank froze, she was the last thing he expected. _

_"Morning, commish." the girl said with a smirk, as she came to stand in front of his desk. Frank tried to recover his composure as his hand dropped from his weapon. _

_"I wasn't aware I had a meeting scheduled." _

_"Neither was your PA." her eyes were bright with humour, she was enjoying having him on his back foot. _

_"Well, you have me at a disadvantage Miss, you know who I am, and why I'm here, but I know neither about you." _

_"Have you decided not to shoot me?" She asked the question nonchalantly, turning as she spoke to glance around the room. Frank cleared his throat. _

_"I apologise about that, a job like this makes enemies, can't be too careful. I would like to know how you got in here without any of my staff being aware of it though." She just turned back to smile at him, clearly amused. The silence between them stretched out for a few seconds, Frank felt like he was being X-rayed by her gaze. "You haven't answered my questions, young lady." Irritation began to creep into his voice. _

_"You haven't asked me any yet." She went to the window and gazed out at the view. She didn't seem the slightest bit interested when Frank came to stand about a foot behind her._

_"Fine. Who are you, and why are you here?" She turned to face him, looked him straight in the eyes, and spoke. _

_"You can call me Kate, and I'm here because I'm your granddaughter." _

"Oh really? Flannel doesn't have the same effect?" Kate smiled but didn't reply. "I'll make breakfast, how do you like your eggs?"

"However they come. You've been waiting for me to show up again."

"Scrambled it is. And of course I have." The atmosphere that surrounded them whilst Frank cooked was less tense than it had been so far when Kate had been around. They ate and Kate thanked him for her food, and then they washed and dried the dishes. It was a nice, ordinary moment. Kate didn't let her guard down, but she was as relaxed as he had yet seen her. He was sorry to have to break this up.

"Say what's on your mind, Frank. I know you've been waiting to talk to me." it was unnerving, how adult she sounded.

"Can't get anything past you, I see. Come and sit down." He poured them each a coffee and motioned to the kitchen table. "I think the best thing to do is to be honest here, Kate. Danny had a case this week, one that he didn't have a good chance of solving, and then someone decided to help him. He solved the case, but he couldn't have done it if that person hadn't intervened. Was that person you?" Kate didn't react to the question at all. She just kept looking coolly into his eyes.

"You ran my DNA three times." It wasn't an accusation, merely a statement.

"Yes, but Kate-"

"And you've had me followed several times."

"Yes," Frank said slowly, "And you've always lost them. That's partly why I'm asking you this now."

"You don't trust me." Again, her voice was casual. Frank sighed and dropped his head for a moment before meeting her eyes again.

"Kate, you clearly know a lot more than you've told us. You managed to find us when we didn't even know you were missing. One day you're going to have to give us answers to the questions we have about you and your parents, about my son and how we never knew he'd fathered you. For now though, I want to know if you're hiding something from us about your involvement in your Uncle Danny's case." After a moment Kate stood, anticipating her next move, Frank reached across the table for her hand, but she pulled away, flinching involuntarily. He withdrew his hand, but left it on the table. "Don't leave, talk to me Kate." His words did nothing to stop her from walking to the door and slinging on her backpack, a cold breeze blew in when she opened the door.

"Just so you know Frank, you're right not to trust me. I'm always hiding something." The door swung shut behind her.

**Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for the follows/reviews/faves, it means a lot! We get to learn a little bit more about the mysterious Kate in this chapter :). If anything is inaccurate I apologise, let me know and I'll fix it. Same disclaimer applies as in the first chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

They didn't see Kate for two weeks after her chat with Frank. Jamie brought a cell phone to Sunday dinner the day after, when she wasn't there he left it at the house, when she decided to show up it was hers. Frustration began to build in the family. At first they had been unwilling to confront the girl, worried she would disappear as suddenly as she had appeared. But, as so many of their questions went unanswered, resentment began to grow. Joe was their family; with him gone she was all they had left of him, save memories and photographs. They needed answers, they deserved them.

XXXXX

"Hey mom, I just called to check in, just like you asked." Nicky's tone let her mom know just how unnecessary she thought her worrying was, but that she was trying to be good natured about it.

"I know, I'm doing the annoying mom thing, but it's Saturday night, I worry. Thanks for calling honey. So how was the movie?"

"It was pretty good, we're gonna go for pizza now, and then I'll take the subway home. Thanks for letting me do this. I really appreciate you trusting me."

"So you'll let me know when you're leaving the pizza place? And when you're on the train? I'll pick you up from the subway stop."

"Yes, yes, and OK. Talk to you later mom, bye."

"Bye." Nicky put the phone down and turned back to her friends.

XXXXX

Nicky said goodbye to the girls she was walking with and headed for the subway stop at the end of the street, calling her mom as she walked. Her friends lived the opposite side of town to her; they were sharing a cab home. She put the phone down as she got to the steps of the station, and headed down into the artificial glare that spilled out onto the dark street. She didn't notice she wasn't alone.

"Hey, honey, how you doin'?" The girl looked up nervously at the group of young guys that had just come down the stairs. They were alone on the platform. She edged nervously away from the muscular young men as they got closer to her. There were four of them, wearing sweatpants and hoodies, and they spread into a loose semi-circle around her. They carried on talking, but Nicky didn't answer, she rubbed her clammy palms on her jeans and mustered her courage.

"B-back off -"

"Oh, she's just peachy, aren't you?" Everyone on the platform whipped around as a young woman in a leather jacket and jeans, her long blonde hair spilling down her shoulders, sauntered down the stairs, apparently completely unsurprised by the unfolding scene.

"Kate?" Nicky's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Hey boys." Kate said with a bright, suggestive smile. She had come to a stop about six feet away from the guy that had spoken first, and hadn't even looked at Nicky as she stared directly into his eyes. "You lookin' for some action?" The guys looked at each other, grinning like they couldn't believe their luck.

"Well, if you're offering, we ain't gonna say no, are we?" Kate smiled at him, an eyebrow arched.

"Really?" She laughed a little. "Hey Nicky, come here sweetie." Nicky had no idea what was going on but she scrambled to get away from the men, she hovered unsurely a few feet behind Kate. "Well then, it's your lucky night," Her hand dropped to her hip, trailed suggestively along her waistband, and then pulled a gun from the back of her jeans. "You found it." She dropped the fake smile in favour of a cold, angry glare. The men all jumped back, the sudden alarm on their face almost comical.

"Whoa, what the hell?"

"OK, here's what's going to happen: you are going to turn around, go back up those steps, and walk out onto the street. You're going to carry on walking, so far and so fast you won't be able to see the city lights, let alone this station. I know you have a knife," she gestured to the smallest of the men with a casual wave of the gun, "and you have me outnumbered. You're probably thinking I'm just a girl, that I wouldn't actually do it. You think you have a chance here. Well, let me tell you, I would love to blow your brains out. If any of you stop, or turn around, or even think about disobeying me, I will be there, and I will kill you. Get moving."

"Hey, look, we weren't gonna -" They screamed as a shot buried itself in the wall behind the guy who had spoken, the noise of the shot deafening in the small space.

"Now." Kate said coldly. Legs shaking, they turned and ran. Kate casually put the gun away and turned to Nicky. "You OK?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm OK I guess . . . What are you doing here? Where did you get a gun?" Kate shrugged casually and guided Nicky to the platform edge as an elderly Chinese woman, oblivious to the drama that she had narrowly avoided, shuffled down the steps.

"Will you be OK getting home?"

"Yeah I'll be fine, but Kate-"

"I'll see you for lunch tomorrow Nicky. Look after yourself." The train was approaching. Kate watched Nicky get on, and then when the station was once again empty she took a penknife out of her pocket and began digging the bullet out of the wall.

XXXXX

Nicky and the adults were quiet at dinner. Nicky had, of course, told her mom what had happened in the subway, who had in turn told the other adults of the family. Jack and Sean didn't understand why everyone was so tense.

"Have you guys been arguing?" Sean asked. Everyone looked around the table at each other, apart from Kate, who was for once focussed on eating her dinner. A little smile played across her lips at the disapproving looks the others were giving her.

"No, no one's arguing." Danny said, "We just have a lot to think about right now."

"Like what?"

"Crime prevention." Kate said innocently.

"Gun control, too." Frank added pointedly.

"Cops are always trying to figure these things out boys. Luckily the people at this table are up to the job." Kate continued conversationally.

"Yeah, the COPS at this table are." Henry said seriously. Kate just smiled and ate a forkful of chicken.

"Who wants dessert?" Linda asked quickly.

XXXXX

Kate wasn't surprised when the Reagans, except Linda and the boys, seated themselves around her as she read in the lounge. She closed her book, and looked at them expectantly.

"OK kid, enough of the run around. We're tired of waiting for you to come to us. It's been a month. We want answers." Danny had his arms folded over his chest as he looked down at her seriously.

"Oh?" Kate looked up at him in mild surprise.

"Can the innocent act! How did you know Nicky was gonna be in that subway last night?"

"How could I have known that? It was just a coincidence." Danny was out of his seat again, standing over Kate. She glared defiantly up at him.

"That's BS! You know what, kid? You came to us. You tracked us down, you walked into your grandfather's office, and you told him you were family. And now that we know about you we hardly ever see you, we know nothing about you or what you do. Why did you even come to us? You won't let us get to know you. You won't even get to know us! And what the hell were you thinking, pulling a gun like that on those bastards? Where did you even get a gun?!" Kate's face was impassive under Danny's tirade, but a slight twitch of her eyes hinted she was feeling more than she would show.

"I was thinking I was saving your niece from a mugging, or a lot worse." Her voice was icily calm.

"Ok, Danny, Danny, calm down." Jamie pulled his brother back into his seat and placated him with a glance. "We're all glad that Nicky's OK, and we're thankful you helped her, but come on, Kate. You're got to give us something here. If you won't tell us about last night then could you please at least tell us about your parents? About Joe?" Kate just looked at him, silent.

"Enough." Frank said, with quiet anger in his voice. "Joe is gone. He was my son, and he's gone. He had a child, a child for Christ's sake, which he told us nothing about. We want answers, and you are the only one who can give them to us. So get your head out of your ass and start talking." Kate looked around for several seconds, contemplating them all, and then sighed.

"Fine, I'll tell you some of what you want to know. I guess you deserve that. But understand this, my story is my own, what you know of it, and when you find it out, is up to me. Understood?" They all nodded.

"Go on." Frank urged her solemnly. Kate paused for a moment, and then launched into the story.

"I guess I should begin by telling you not to think that Joe did you, or me, wrong. He didn't hide me from you; he didn't abandon me, because he never knew I existed. My mother was called Stacy Edwards. She was an on again, off again drug addict. She liked to party. My father met her in a club; they had a one night stand. From what I've found out about him that was unusual for Joe. It was very usual for Stacy. I found them by matching our DNA; they were both in the system, Joe for being a cop, Stacy for when she got busted for possession."

"I would have been notified if my son's DNA had been flagged for anything in the system."

"I got around that."

"How?" Kate sighed.

"I found out certain things about an employee of a forensics lab which, if they had become known publicly, would have been damaging. In exchange for keeping their secret, this person did me a favour."

"You blackmailed them?" said Henry, sounding disapproving.

"If that's how you want to put it, pop, yes. But that's beside the point. The point is, I found out who my parents were." Kate drew in a breath, collecting herself. "After tracking down people who knew Stacy I've pieced the story of what happened after that night together. As I said, Stacy's use was off and on. She was off when she met Joe, on soon after that. From what I can gather she had a very sad life. When she wasn't on the drugs, she was drinking. Grew up in social services, ran away at 15, no support network, no family. Pretty though. She bounced around from man to man, dead end job to working the street. Never really found her feet. She and Joe were young; I guess it was a drunken mistake for him. He probably never thought anything of it. Stacy started using again, I don't know if she knew she was pregnant at the time. I know she got kicked out by her boyfriend, he couldn't have kids. It doesn't seem like she knew who Joe was, or how to find him, so even if she'd wanted to tell him about me she couldn't. She was on the street when she gave birth to me. Broke, and apparently not wanting to be a mother, she sold me." Kate paused, letting the information sink in, before continuing. "She was dead less than 18 months later, she OD'd." The room was quiet for several moments. It was impossible to say what Kate was feeling; her face was stoic, unreadable.

"Who did she sell you to?" Danny asked, his voice rough.

"Sorry guys, that's all you get tonight." No one wanted to argue, it felt cruel after the story she'd told. They didn't even want to think who a drug addict would have sold a baby to. They had more to talk about though. Erin bit the bullet.

"Kate, we still need to talk about last night."

"Oh God, can't you just leave it alone?"

"Thank you so much for looking after Nicky, if you hadn't . . ." Erin's eyes shone with emotion as she looked at her daughter, but she swallowed and met Kate's eyes again. "But you can't be walking around carrying a gun; it's dangerous, and illegal. And we need to know where you are. Up until now I hoped maybe you were living with your mother or her family, but now we know that's impossible."

"I look after myself just fine, and I have the gun for protection."

"I want that gun, Kate." Frank said quietly but firmly.

"Well then you're going to be disappointed, you can't have it."

"Kate, when I tell you to do something, I expect it done, or -"

"Or what Gramps? What will you do? What can you do?" She glared at him, her eyes dark. Frank said nothing, examining his granddaughter with a fierce scrutiny. The tension in the room was palpable. "You gonna kick me out? You gonna beat me, Commish? No? That's what I thought. And as for me living with you? I told you, I do what I want to do. You're not keeping tabs on me. No one controls me." She stood, pulled her jacket on, and slung her back pack over her shoulder. Jamie, Erin and Danny all started talking; an unintelligible racket of both protest at her leaving and indignation at her treatment of their father, but Frank silenced them. Kate was already at the door when Nicky raced to catch her and grabbed her elbow.

"Kate? I just wanted to say thank you. I didn't yesterday, and I should have, I'm sorry I didn't, but really - Thank you. I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't been there. I don't care how you knew I was in trouble. I'm just really glad you did. Just wait there, one second." Nicky ran off before Kate had a chance to react, she was back seconds later though, and pushed an object into her hand. Kate looked at it and then Nicky questioningly. "Uncle Jamie got it for you. You don't have to use it, but if you do you've got it. Our numbers are in it already." Kate weighed it up in her head for a moment, and then nodded to Nicky, slipping the phone in her pocket. She rested her hand on Nicky's arm for a second, and then left out the front door.

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